I'll try a short, simplified version... the bank that financed the "theme park development project" is owned by the state of "Rheinland Pfalz". 90% of the company that has been declared insolvent and that actually owns the ring and all the theme park stuff is owned by the state also (the other 10% are owned by the local municipality). So there is no real "outside funding". Thus little risk, that the assets could be jeopardized in the sense of "being sold off to some private investor that now buys the bancrupt company".

The state government had originally promised, that the taxpayer would not have to pay for the construction, but that it would be 100% privately funded. The private investors never showed up or vanished and so the states own bank provided the funding.

Bankruptcy is really a relative term in this case. A government owned limited liability company cannot pay the government owned investment bank. Normally the government could just decide to i.e. postpone repayments. The EU however doesn't like that idea. Thus the limited liability company has to declare insolvency. The state should have 100% of the assets as collateral.

Thanks for the explanation. Yes very different from a private financing structure so I see how they got themselves in this mess.

I do a lot of work for one of the largest German real estate companies (Hypo) so while Germany is in the best shape of its European counterparts, it's real estate market has tanked just like everyone else's.

Hopefully the parties involved see the value in continuity of activity at the Ring and leave disruptions at a minimum, while they try to figure out what to do with the theme park development project.